Investment For '09: Buy A Stake In Securities Litigation

It’s a little scary to think of the endless years of securities litigation that lie ahead of us. Litigation from the .com bust only recently died down, and this is way bigger than that. So if you’re looking for an investment idea, perhaps you’ll be interested in funding all this litigation.

Reuters: Litigation insurance broker ILF Limited and alternative assets adviser IGS Group said on Wednesday they had launched a joint venture partnership that will raise funds to invest in corporate litigation cases.

Independent Litigation Funding LLP will aim to raise up to eight new funds this year, each of around 20 million pounds ($29 million), and finance mid-sized corporate litigation cases brought before UK courts.

This isn’t a new idea, but we don’t doubt that the the funds will have an easy time raising money. That being said, we doubt investors will be huge winners here. The real winners will be the lawyers bringing these cases, due to the volume of activity, and it’s doubtful they’ll share too much with outside investors.